


in search of your glory

by lesliesbknope



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Blind Date, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-16 17:23:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14815634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesliesbknope/pseuds/lesliesbknope
Summary: (Let it be noted that when Alice looks back at this moment, she’ll think of it fondly, and forever be grateful she didn’t completely muck it up.)(Not entirely, anyway.)





	in search of your glory

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so here’s the deal: I’ve never written Alice and Robin before and I’m #terrified, but I wrote this piece elsewhere for something else, and I thought it’d be better appreciated here. I also found i found it fit them a bit. At least in my head? (now I’m nervous….) so I did a lot of tweaking and rewriting and rearranging and it came out to this. Anyway, I’d love to know your thoughts!

****(Let it be noted that when Alice looks back at this moment, she’ll think of it fondly, and forever be grateful she didn’t completely muck it up.)

(Not entirely, anyway.)

—

Alice glances down at the pocket watch in her hands, avoiding her phone at all costs save for the music it feeds into her headphones. She follows the minute hand intently, as it barrels headfirst into the next hour. God, if only time could stop before she had to make it to this blind date.

A blind date. For  _her_ , the girl whose anxiety generally does her absolutely no favors.

She has to remind herself that she could have said no, even now after the millionth time they’d tried to set her up, but this time, it seemed it’d be the only way she could finally get them off her back. Especially considering all the other times she’d said no only seemed to fuel their fire to get her into a relationship.

Her foster brother Henry and his wife Jacinda. Matchmakers extraordinaire.

Henry had been overprotective as they came, and Jacinda was a fan of all his crazy ideas.

(Alice and Henry had known each other since she was ten. His mother and stepfather had taken her in when she had nowhere else to go, before her she found out her real papa was her foster father’s brother, that is.  _Twins._

He’d been looking for her forever.

But that’s a longer, more confusing story for a different day.)  

Jacinda swore that if Alice only listened to them, that she could have someone who loves her just as much as she deserves to be. That she wouldn’t be so lost in her art all the time.

Which she wasn’t,  _thank you very much,_  or well, not that she’d admit it, anyway. Her art just… understood her better. Oil on canvas, pencil to paper… it made sense to her. It didn’t judge her. It just was.

But in her defense, her last relationship had imploded so terribly, sending her into a tailspin she hadn’t experienced since she was a little girl that her art had become her safety net as she swore off love.

(She hadn’t, of course, for she was too much of a romantic—she’d been known to quietly fall in love with flowers and the stars in the sky and the free ocean when she marveled enough. Curious little starfish, her papa always said—but she was certainly warier.)

Alice and her art and the teaching job she’d found along the way.  That’s it. She was happy.

And that was when Henry felt the need to intervene. ”You could be even happier, Alice,” he’d said. “Let us help!”

That had been a year ago.

But she knew she meant well, that they both did. And it had taken nearly a year of her rejecting their help before finally saying yes, if only to fend them off.

And now she’s on a train with her stomach in knots. Not a great feeling, no.

—

By the time she’s finished the walk from the train to the coffee shop at the end of the cross street, she’s made up her mind about how she’s going to let this woman down easy. She’ll explain that this was her brother’s doing, and that she’s sorry for wasting any of her time.

And then she’ll just tell Henry it didn’t work out and move on. Hopefully her brother would keep his promise about it being JUST one.

With a few deep breaths, she straightens out her dress and fiddles with the rings on her fingers before she makes her way inside.

She didn’t have any details, she finds. Just that she’d be blonde and tall and really that could be anyone. Oh, and that she’d be sitting at the back right corner of the coffee shop.

Again, anyone. Easy enough, right?

Scanning the room, she spots a couple sharing a muffin, a man typing furiously on his laptop, and a few teenaged girls sipping on iced coffees in a circle, happily engaged in conversation. She’s grateful none of them seem to be students of her art class. It isn’t that she’d mind, just that she’s not in the best mindset at the moment.

And then she sees her, blonde, brows furrowed, clearly worried. At least they’re on the same page?

She is rather lovely looking, and part of her is sorry she likely won’t be able to hold it together long enough to give this a chance.

She walks over to her, swallowing a few times, before smiling a bit and trying to find at least a lick of confidence to get through this.

“Hi,” she greets gently. “You must be—”

“Hi,” she says before she’s on her feet and grabbing her bag. “I have to go, I’m sorry…” she manages before bypassing her and making her way to the door.

Well, that’s one way for things to go. Alice furrows her brows looking between the table and chair and back to where the woman stands by the door, looking through her bag like mad.

She has two options, really. Option A: she lets her go and gets on her merry way, just like she wanted. Option B: she follows her and figures out what’s wrong.

She has a split second to weigh said options before he hears the door and the decision is made for her.

—

“Hey!” she calls after her, jogging down the street before she can get too far. “Hey… I didn’t… are you all right?“

She looks slightly startled, but she’s quick to gather her own bearings. “Uh… I am yeah, sorry,” she says, shaking her head, pushing a round pair of glasses up the bridge of her nose. “I’m not…” she hesitates.

She motions between them then. “This has nothing to do with you, I’m sorry. I just, I was going to be late to meet you, so I took an Uber and… I think left my phone on it…” she explains, fiddling with her bag again, as if it would magically appear there the harder she looked.

“Oh.” It’s all she can manage because what do you say to that.

“It isn’t about the phone, I swear,” she explains. “I just… I’m a photographer and I keep a flash drive attached to the back of it with my shots. She’s gonna kill me if she finds out I lost the only copy…”

“Wait, wait, the only copy?”

She groans and starts walking away from her again, clearly frustrated by her own faux pas. He feels for her, he really does, and it’s why he follows her again.

“Can I help you look?” she asks, trying to match her pace, but she clearly has longer legs and it take Alice a bit more effort.

“How?” There’s more bite to her tone than she probably intends given the frustrated tears brimming in her eyes. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“No, no, don’t say that,” she stresses, suddenly feeling her own heart speed up at her distress. “We could look… you could call it.” Alice holds up her own phone. “Maybe your Uber driver will find it and reach out.” It’s an optimism she normally reserves for discouraged high schoolers and her niece.

She presses her lips together and for a moment Alice thinks she’ll say no, but before she can say another word, she takes her phone in her hands.

—

Despite how much she’d hoped, her Uber driver doesn’t answer her phone, and as it turns out, she remembers she’d left it on vibrate.

(She kicks the garbage can.)

Alice suggests they call Uber directly and give her name and information and maybe they could get in touch with the driver.

Her eyes light up slightly with a bit of hope, and she notices then they’re just the loveliest shade of green behind her glasses. Bright when she’s hopeful and stormy when she’s frustrated.

Like right now, when the Uber servers are down and customer service isn’t working. She thinks she might cry or throttle something.

“Okay, okay, slow down, have you thought about tracking it? The cloud and all that? If your phone is on, you can at least have an idea of where your driver could be?”

She hands her the phone again, and she goes about logging in, fiddling with the map, and the moments of lagging in the signal (so much for LTE, Verizon) before she spots it.

“Oh my god!” she breathes, watching the bright green dot on her screen move slowly but surely downtown toward the waterfront, and the bit of hope finds her face again.

Reaching into the pocket of her jacket, Alice pulls out her watch, trusty and helpful today in more ways than one, seeing rush hour is fast approaching. “The train will be faster than if we try and get a cab or another Uber…” she tells her, already leading her toward the subway entrance she’d come out of earlier.

“Trust me, after today, I’m walking everywhere,” she huffs, and Alice giggles, before they’re both heading into the station and onto the train.

—

It’s packed, and it’s rush hour, which could be a win for them in terms of getting to wherever the car is going before the driver ever makes it there. Alice’s phone becomes a guide and a beacon almost for her lost phone.

However, they’re pushed into a corner with Alice against the wall, boxed in by her blind date, almost too close to her face for two people who just met.

“Sorry…” she says sheepishly, blush coloring her cheeks.

“You’re fine,” she tells her, a blush of her own creeping up her face as she reaches up for the grab bar.

(Alice decides then it’s her new favorite thing.)

She exhales, seemingly trying to center herself, and Alice feels her warm breath against her cheeks, goose bumps forming against her skin. Oh, this was about to be either the worst or best day ever…

“Why are you helping me?” she asks a beat later, pressing her hand against the wall beside her for balance instead of raising her other hand. Alice supposes she can’t blame her for trying to keep at least some distance despite the forced closeness. “I sort of bailed on you, and probably would’ve kept going had you not stopped me.”

And well, she can’t reach the grab bar without easing even closer to her, so she rests her hand on the wall beside her. “Well, for starters, we’re now using my phone to track yours,” she points out. “I like to think I’d be rather terrible if I just left you.”

Her lip quirks. “That’s fair.”

“And well, I really like adventures…” she smiles. “This feels like a good one.”

The train comes to a screeching stop, almost too sudden for anyone to keep their balance. Her hands find her shoulders, both to steady Alice, and herself, and inevitably drawing them both closer together.

Alice apologizes again, even if it’s impossible for it to be her fault, but she waves her off, tiny smile on her face. “I don’t even know your name for you to be this close,” she jokes, and her heart nearly beats out of her chest.

“I’m sorry,” she says again, trying and failing to create some more distance before giving up as the train car becomes even more crowded. “I’m called Alice,” she sighs, smiling despite herself.

“Nice to meet you, Alice,” she grins, fingers lightly digging into the fabric of her shirt, the grab bar forgotten as they begin to move again. “I’m Robin.”

—

They make it to the waterfront a little while later, and the first thing he does once they’re outside is refresh the map on Alice’s  phone. They’re still a ways away, but it’s the closest they can get without walking or driving.

So they walk.

A string of texts cuts through the beat of silence, and Alice assumes they’re from when they were still underground.

She excuses herself to read them as they walk, just in case it’s her driver. Instead she sees four from Henry. She furrows her brow as she skims them before her eyes widen slightly.

 _Oh, no…_  she thinks.

“Why did you agree to a blind date?” Robin asks suddenly, slipping her hands into the pockets of her jeans, bag still flung over her shoulder.

“Hm?” she clears her throat, trying to find her lost bearings.

Robin looks up at her. “Are you okay?”

“Uh, yeah, sorry,” she shakes her head sliding her phone into her pocket, hand finding her watch instead, squeezing it nervously. “My brother. Or well, foster brother. My brother…” she shakes her head, rattling the cobwebs, she’d always called it when trying to concentrate. “He’s been hounding me for almost a year to let him set me up with someone, and I kept saying no.”

“Huh. Lucky me?” she wonders, and she can’t help but smile.

“I might be the lucky one… what about you?”

“My best friend didn’t actually tell me until the last possible second because she knew I’d say no,” she explains.

“So at least we have that much in common,” she notes.

“Yeah. You regretting it yet with this wild goose chase?”

“Not a goose chase. An adventure.”

—

The green dot stops moving around the same time they reach the pier. And either the car has stopped, or her phone has died, but whatever it is, Alice really hopes, for Robin’s sake, it’s the former.

She’s also really hoping that finding her phone doesn’t bring their time together to a close, even though it probably would.

She’d have to make the most of it, which is ironic considering how she didn’t want to do this in the first place.

“What made you want to be a photographer?” she asks as they turn onto a narrow street.

“Is telling stories and making memories too cheesy of a response?” Robin smiles. “My dad died a few years ago…” Alice’s heart breaks as she mutters her apology, but Robin shakes her head.

“It’s okay, really. But when he died, I just sort of… ran away? It was easier somehow… Anyway, I saw a lot of the world. Everywhere I went, I wanted to bring it all back with me and share it with my mom, my brother, and my stepmom, which is when I figured out I wanted to come back at all, and so I took pictures. And then fell… down the photography rabbit hole, as they say.” She smiles at her own turn of phrase. “And I see it’s brought me to Alice.”

Alice blushes furiously and shakes her head. “Jeez.” Robin grins, wrinkling her nose. “Maybe it is a bit cliché, but I always tell my students those aren’t always a bad thing.”

“Oh, so you’re a teacher?” She nods. “What do you teach?”

“Art. At the high school.”

“High school?” she wrinkles her nose, despite her smile.

“Yeah,” she chuckles. “I’m not the best in front of people. A bit of a mess, if I’m honest, but there’s something about high schoolers and their way of seeing the world that makes it bearable. We get through it together.”

“Huh. That’s a… really nice way of viewing it,” she muses. “I’m assuming you had a great high school experience then?”

“Oh, gosh no, I was too awkward. I was… a bit much, and I was too worried about people thinking I was… well, mad,” she bites her lip, trying to shake away the memories bubbling in the pit of her stomach. “Had it not been for my brother, I probably wouldn’t have gotten through it,” she tells her. “But when I decided to teach, I think I saw it as a second chance to help out more kids like me.”

“God, that’s almost unbearably noble,” she groans, and her cheeks redden. “You’re so sweet.”

“If it’s of any consolation at all, I spend most of my free time creating lesson plans and grading art projects, so it isn’t all that glamorous.”

“It isn’t at all because despite that you still do it,” she laughs.

She chuckles. “Photography is noble, too, you know.”

“Photography is  _narcissistic_. My photos are for a book. This agent found my work, and wants to publish them. But the whole ‘here’s a close up of a flower. Pay me fifty bucks for it,’ seems a little…” she trails off.

“Maybe some photographers feel that way.” Alice nods. “But if you think about it, you wouldn’t be this invested in finding your work if it was because you thought you were better in any way. Because if that were the case, you’d just shrug, and take more, you know?”

“I guess that’s a good point,” she muses.

“So I can gather you’re likely making memories and telling stories that mean something to you. And if your work is as genuine as you appear to be to me, then your photos just might reach someone who really needs it.”

Robin’s jaw drops and she stops, glancing up at her with a wonder in her eyes. And either Alice has said too much, or maybe gotten a bit too cheesy, but whatever it is, she’s almost positive she never wants to stop seeing that look on her face.

She swallows hard and for a moment her eyes dart to her lips before she exhales. “Maybe…” she bites her lip. “But that—that’ll never happen if I don’t find that flash drive…”

—

The location of her phone doesn’t change again, and Alice’s theory about her phone being dead becomes more and more plausible. Her heart sinks at the thought of their one key to finding her lost work, and with it, maybe ever seeing her again.

But she doesn’t have the heart to tell her, to disappoint her like that, so she hopes to death that she’s wrong.

“Wait, wait,” Robin says, stopping by a parked blue Camry, Uber sticker on the back window, and another bumper sticker near the taillight. “This is the car,” she says.

“Are you sure?” she asks, inching closer and looking into the rear window to see if her phone is on the seat. It isn’t. “I don’t see anything…”

“This is… yeah, that’s the bumper sticker. It could’ve fallen under the seat or something! Oh my god, Alice! Call it!”

“But you won’t hear it…” she shuffles for her phone anyway, going to dial her number.

“But maybe I’ll hear it vibrate or see a light or something…” she sighs, the distress she’d had when she’d first met her at the coffee shop appearing back on her face. “Please?”

This time her phone goes straight to voicemail, and her suspicions about the phone being dead are confirmed, but before she can let her know this, her voicemail stops short. “Oh no…”

“What? What’s wrong?” she asks.

“My phone died…” she holds up her phone, the spinning wheel appearing on the screen before going pitch black.

“You let it die?!  How could you let it die?! It was my only key to finding it!”

“I’m sorry!” she apologizes, though he knows deep down it’s nothing either of them could’ve really prevented, or at least have foreseen. “Your phone was dead too, I couldn’t…” Alice frowns, her heart racing again, this time pacing as she tries to stop herself from spinning out.

“Fuck!” she swears, running her fingers through long blonde hair. She stomps back toward the steps of the building they’re in front of and sits, burying her face in her hands. “I’m so stupid, fuck.”

Robin’s reaction draws Alice from her mind, and she treads lightly before taking a seat beside her. “You’re not stupid. You’re not... You couldn’t have foreseen any of this.”

She doesn’t think twice when he wraps her arm around her shoulders and draws her into her side. “I’m so sorry, Robin,” she says, giving her arm a squeeze.

“Alice, I really need to find it,” she sniffles, eyes welling as she tips her head onto his shoulder. “I thought it’d be safer there than on my computer or the stupid cloud or whatever… I… if I kept it on me…”

She looks around hoping to see some sort of sign, some sort of saving grace, and comes up short, only spotting a Starbucks.

“Hey… I have my charger… we could go inside and get us something to drink and charge my phone,” she suggests. “Maybe we could try calling Uber again and reach the driver.”

She sits up, sniffling once more before wiping at her eyes. “Okay… I… sorry.”

She shakes his head. “It’s okay. Really. Don’t be sorry, Robin.”

—

She excuses herself to go to the bathroom and clean herself up once they’re inside, and she stands in line to order, having offered to treat her to her drink. It’s the least she could do, right?

She feels for her, she really does. In the grand scheme of things, it’s just a flash drive, but whatever work is on it clearly means everything to her. That, and well, her budding career as a photographer… or book person… what’s the right word?

She’s waiting for their orders at the end of the counter when he turns suddenly at the sound of her voice.

“You!” she furrows his brow, looking in her direction. “It’s you!”

The man looks slightly confused at her sudden reaction, clearly caught off guard by her.

“My phone! I forgot it in your car this morning, you left me at the coffee shop on 23rd. iPhone, purple case…”

She deflates a bit, as if she’s realizing she has the wrong guy, before recognition crosses his features. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the phone in question, bulky purple case in full display.

“I remember you,” he says, small smile on his face as he hands it to her. “I would’ve missed it had my last ride not pointed it out to me.”

“Oh my god, thank you,” she says, opening the back compartment of the phone case, tears of relief spilling down her cheeks when she spots the flash drive that is essentially the key to everything.

She turns back to Alice, her eyes and smile bright and big and so fulfilled, and then she’s hurrying over to her, wrapping both arms around her. “Thank you so, so much,” she whispers, lips finding hers a moment later, clearly catching both of them off guard.

—

Alice offers her charger first once they’re seated at a corner table near the large window of the Starbucks, and a moment later, the famed apple appears on the screen.

“I… sorry about that,” Robin swallows, rosy iced tea hardly touched since their lips touched a moment earlier.

Alice manages a small smile, half coated in the sadness that came with the idea of her not having wanted that. And maybe they’d just met, and maybe it’d caught her off guard, but no part of her wanted it any less.

“I just… I found it and you helped me so much and… I hope I haven’t ruined this.”

She furrows his brow. “Ruined this… Robin, I…”

But before he can say another word, her phone starts to vibrate incessantly, drawing both their attention away from one another. She glances down at the phone, her own brows furrowing before raising practically to her hairline.

“Oh shit…” she mutters, picking up her phone, and furiously reading the text message on the screen.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, heart sinking.

“I…” she blinks over at her. “You’re not my blind date.”

She presses his lips together, knowing the gig was up. “And you aren’t mine,” Alice mumbles. She pulls out her still dead phone.

“Wait, you knew?” she asks, and inches away from her just so. And it shouldn’t, but it tears her heart some.

“I didn’t… when we came off the train, I got a text from my brother asking me where I was, that someone whose name definitely isn’t Robin was waiting for me across town at a very different coffee shop.”

Robin’s jaw drops, clearly floored and unsure of what to say. She holds up her phone, showing her the message stating that someone named Anna was wondering where she was.

“I… oh fuck,” she mutters. “Wait, so why didn’t you leave when you found out? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Alice gives her a sheepish smile. “I was… invested in your cause. And I… I didn’t have the heart to leave you, especially not after getting to know you,” she admits, waiting for the final blow.

Except it never comes. Except her lips find hers and her hand finds her cheek and Alice nearly passes out.

“You are so lucky you’re short, blonde, and English,” she mutters against her lips. Alice pulls away confused. “Those were only the details I knew about my date… you fit the description,” she chuckles.

“That’s just so specific…” she shakes her head, amused. “What are the odds?”

“Maybe not so slim if I found someone else who fit that specific description. I was nervous, so I got there ridiculously early, but you fit so I didn’t question it. And well, had you not, I definitely would’ve bailed.”

She giggles. “I guess I’m glad I fit your description. All they told me about you… or well, her, is that she was blonde and in the corner table.”

“That could have literally been at least 60% of the female population.”

“No one accounted for me being so nervous I read the name wrong,” she admits. “I avoided my phone at all costs on my way, so I never checked, and I was ready to let her down easy.”

Robin smiles softly, giving her shoulder a squeeze. “Why? And why were you nervous?”

Alice shrugs. “I’m not great at meeting people in general, and as I told you before, I am not the biggest fan of surprises. I didn’t have all the variables, so I didn’t know what to expect. That doesn’t always work out for me. So I was going to just cancel altogether.”

“Ah,” she nods slowly. “Do you regret today?”

“No,” she tells her, firm, and probably surer than she’s been about dating in a while. “I… I would’ve regretted not staying around to help you. So I think I’m a little happy you lost your phone,” she grins. “Got me you.”

“Who said you got me?” she asks, biting back a grin.

“I… well.” She reaches up, scratching behind her ear.

“I’m kidding,” Robin giggles, hand finding her cheek. “Thank you for helping me today, and for not going to the right place,” she teases, bowing her head to kiss her.


End file.
